UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989
Summary
CRC provides comprehensive rights for children including protection from military recruitment (Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict). Particularly relevant to documented LTTE use of child soldiers and to the treatment of children in post-war detention and rehabilitation camps. The Committee on the Rights of the Child monitors implementation.
Relevance to the diaspora
Tamil diaspora documentation of LTTE child soldier recruitment and of post-war detention of Tamil youth under the PTA informs CRC Committee review of Sri Lanka; diaspora advocacy ensures these issues are raised in periodic reviews; child survivors now in diaspora communities can also invoke CRC-based protections in host countries.
Key provisions
- Art. 38 — protection of children in armed conflict
- Art. 37 — prohibition of torture and arbitrary detention of children
- Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict — minimum age 18 for direct participation
- Art. 30 — rights of minority children
Primary source
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-childRelated entries
Where this law is used in the archive
No dossier, desk or evidence pack currently relies on this entry. It is indexed and sourced, but not yet load-bearing anywhere in the archive.